Random Ramsdom: Rams select LB Ernest Jones in Mel Kiper’s latest mock

ESPN NFL draft analyst Mel Kiper just published his latest two-round mock draft and he has the Rams avoiding several other prominent needs to select South Carolina linebacker Ernest Jones with the 57th-overall pick.

Jones is a lengthy, rangy linebacker who was a tackling machine during the 2020 season. In just nine games played, he finished with 86 total tackles, including a pair of games where he notched at least 18 stops. He also added five tackles-for-loss and a sack.

As a junior, Jones totaled 97 tackles, 5.5 for loss, and another sack to go with a pair of interceptions and five pass breakups. In three seasons, including 26 games played and 21 starts, Jones finished his career with 199 tackles.

He’s fairly sound in his fundamentals and thrives in the middle where he can hastily fill gaps and sift through trash en route to finding ball-carriers at or behind the line of scrimmage.

Now for today’s links.

Rams News:

Sarina Morales tries to imitate habits of Rams players (TheRams.com)

The latest mock draft roundup (TheRams.com)

Terrell Burgess believes he has a big opportunity in front of him this season (The Rams Wire)

How the Rams are disproving the first-round fallacy (Ramblin’ Fan)

NFL News:

Mel Kiper’s latest two-round mock draft (ESPN)

Todd McShay’s draft prospect tiers (ESPN+)

Is Julian Edelman a Hall-of-Famer? (NFL.com)

Gerald McCoy has no plans to retire (NFL.com)

Sam Darnold expected a 20-year career with the Jets (Pro Football Talk)

Miami DE Jaelan Phillips has biggest boom-or-bust potential in this year’s draft (Bleacher Report)